The Men in the Middle

The opening partnership is considered one of the most important elements in the twenty over game. It can be used to implement both the major strategies in batting in this format of the game. The first one is to establish a solid start, even if the top two concentrate solely on batting sensibly and keep the scoreboard ticking over gently, keeping wickets in hand to explode at the end. The other approach is to go out with one opener looking to anchor and the other to blaze. If the blazer gets out, then a stabilization process follows before the next eruption of runs.

Whichever tactic a team prefers, a lot rests on the way they open their innings, and a brief scanning of the stats tells the story. The top ten partnerships of the IPL so far feature four opening stands. Two of the four belong to Manish Pandey and Jacques Kallis, who put on 93 against Rajasthan and 85 against Mumbai. They scored 71 against the Delhi Daredevils in the 20th match of this competition, a figure that slots in at 14th in the partnerships rankings.

With Kallis and Pandey being in the impressive form they are in, it's no surprise that the Bangalore Royal Challengers have treated their middle order like a middle child - they know it's there, but since attention can be focused on the top order and the bowlers, it's convenient enough to forget the middle child exists. Fans were itching to see more of Robin Uthappa, after he clocked two half centuries in the tournament thus far, but expectation has really hung over Eoin Morgan. He was given very little chance before today's match against the Delhi Daredevils and instead of manning the middle order, he did just what the middle child typically does - underperform.

The difference between the two sides was in the middle orders, a forgotten about but vitally important factor in the shortest form of the game. Where AB de Villiers, Dinesh Karthik and Kedar Jadhav put on 112 batting at positions three, four and five, Uthappa, Rahul Dravid and Morgan only managed 33 runs in the same positions. Bangalore went from 71 for one at the end of the 10th over to 120 for five at the end of 15ht over and that proved to be the dent in their chase of 184. Virat Kohli's 38 off 23 balls was brave but batsmen numbers 7 to 11 only assisted with 13 runs as Bangalore found themselves 17 runs short.

The middle order has been the deciding factor in an at least two other matches in the tournament so far. In the opening encounter between the Kolkata Knight Riders and the Deccan Chargers, Owais Shah and Angelo Matthews scored 58 and 65 respectively while the Chargers number three, four and five batters only scored 58 runs between them. KKR's middle order slumped soon after though. When they lost to the Chennai Super Kings by 55 runs in the 8th match of the tournament, their batsmen numbers three to seven scored just 63 while MS Dhoni and Subramaniam Badrinath scored 109 between them batting at numbers four and five.

The two highest partnerships of the tournament have also been middle order stands. The chart topping partnership of the tournament so far has been a fifth wicket stand of 130 between Shah and Matthews in that opening game. The next highest is a fourth wicket stand between Saurabh Tiwary and Ambati Rayudi worth 110 for the Mumbai Indians against the Royals on the second day of the competition.

The numbers say enough to warn Bangalore that their middle order needs more attention. Although nothing should be taken away from the superb effort of Umesh Yadav or the way Amit Mishra used a drier and more turning pitch to strangle the life out of the home teams middle men, Morgan and Dravid are two big names who need to step up. They haven't had much time to get a feel for this year's IPL and this match was their first real test. They will be forgiven for failing but will be aware that Kallis, Pandey, and to some extent Uthappa, are going to need their support. Morgan will be nervously looking over his shoulder in the next few days, because Kevin Pietersen arrives in India soon and the English aggressor may be used to strengthen the middle order. Ross Taylor's arrival is also imminent and although both he and Pietersen probably can't be used in the same match because of the four international players rule, they will provide good competition for Dravid and Morgan.